Live Session: Ernston “Stoop Kid”

Posted: 16th May, 2018 by The Editor

Before their set at Sounds from the House, three-quarters of the New Jersey swing-punk band, Ernston, was sitting on the porch at AGL Sounds, shooting the breeze and ripping into three separate mouth guitar solos. Based on their visible comfortability with one another, you would think that this group has been together for years.

Ernston’s initial members, local singing sensation, Jimmy Fasulo and guitarist Errol Beutell, met while hating their lives in high school. “My door is always open, you never know when our musical paths will cross,” was what Beutell wrote in Fasulo’s yearbook before they left the confines of institutionalized education, but Fasulo just didn’t foresee the connection. “Now four years later we’re still doing it,” Fasulo said.

After writing pop-punk music for years, Fasulo grew a desire to start writing rock music after smoking pot for the first time and finally understanding the appeal of The Beatles. Fasulo’s growing love for rock and roll combined with Beutell’s classic rock and third tier ‘80s hair metal bands (who shalt not be named) fostered the beginning songwriting stages for Ernston.

The two played a bunch of one-off gigs with a wash of different musicians, itching to record their new material, but just couldn’t find the right pieces for a full band. “So we decided to do it without a band,” Fasulo said smiling, “and that’s when we came to AGL Sounds.”

AGL’s co-founders, Doug Gallo and Ryan Hillsinger, not only would begin engineering Ernston’s music, but eventually joining the band; Gallo on bass and Hillsinger on drums. “The songs really came together in the studio,” Gallo said, and so did the entire cohesive quartet. “If this group of musicians existed without me, it would be my favorite band,” Fasulo said of the current line-up. Through the production of their upcoming four-track EP, that is set to release this summer, Ernston’s music now nails down all the ideas for their sound that they’ve had in their heads.

The song “Stoop Kid,” that was played at Sounds from the House, sans Gallo on bass, is about growing up and growing out of old ways. “It’s also a song that encompasses the anxiety I had getting reacclimated to social situations after I quit drinking,” Fasulo revealed, “I no longer had a shield to deal with people that made me uncomfortable and it was really dysphoric to try communicating with drunk people when I wasn’t where they were anymore.” It’s a rock song with a modern energy and attitude, speaking to the moment at a party when you don’t know what to do with yourself. “You never feel at all like this when you’re at home,” Fasulo sings, “Go light a cigarette, the front porch looks nice and warm.”

You can download the whole session along with all our previous sessions for Pay What You Want HERE!

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